The UK arm of AMI – the world’s largest trade-only airfreight and express wholesaler – has launched its new on-line Quote&Book portal. The new site is modelled on AMI’s highly successful Express click2ship model, launched in 2010. The site is only accessible by AMI approved agent customers, who need to enter just a few shipment details to obtain immediate quotes. Prices can then be filtered using AMI’s consolidation or direct AWB service, as well as by airport of departure, direct or deferred services. Customers requiring additional value added services can also request these via the site - including a nationwide collection service, HAWB production, NES entries and security screening. Prices will appear as all-inclusive, but customers can also view a detailed break-down. Quotes can be printed, emailed and/or stored on the system for subsequent retrieval when the enquiry becomes a booking. In its first phase release, Quote&Book caters for Airport-to-Airport export shipments. Phase II, covering Airport-to-Door (DDU/DDP), is under development and due for release later in 2015. Customers requiring support are still able to call AMI’s Customer Service Centre; however, the new portal also embodies a ‘live chat’ facility for instant answers during the enquiry and booking processes. Says AMI VP Europe, Sharon Wright: “AMI was the pioneer in on-line air cargo booking portals almost 20 years ago. This new portal fully recognises and adopts the new ways in which our customers want to do business, and enables them to obtain an instant and competitive ‘all in’ price – enabling them to satisfy the demands of their shipper customers requiring speedy responses and prices.” In its first four days of operation, the Quote&Book portal was visited by 926 AMI agent customers, who submitted  2261 quote requests. By close of business on day four, these had already generated 358 bookings. Concludes Sharon: “This is a promising start, and we’d like to thank all those customers who are already using this new facility. Our original bookings site has consistently handled around 40% of our business, which was already the envy of the industry. Some 75% of our express bookings are transacted on-line; this figure is now a realistic ambition for our mainstream web portal, with its added functionality.”